Floyd Cardoz

Celebrated Indian-American chef Floyd Cardoz changed the way we think of Indian food at fabled New York restaurant Tabla. In 1997, he partnered with Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer to open the pioneering restaurant, which received a three-star review from The New York Times. After Tabla closed in 2011, Cardoz opened New York’s North End Grill. In 2015, he returned to his roots and opened The Bombay Canteen in Mumbai, India, and the following year he opened Paowalla, a celebration of his Goan-Indian heritage, in Soho, New York.

Cardoz received his diploma in Hotel Restaurant Management and Administration at the Swiss hotel management culinary school Les Roches and began his career as an apprentice in the kitchen of the Taj Mahal Intercontinental Hotel. He then worked in New York City under chef Gray Kunz at the venerable Lespinasse, rising from chef de partie to chef de cuisine in five years.

The four-time James Beard Award nominee won season three of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. His grand prize of $100,000 provided great support for the Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund at New York’s Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He received the first-ever Humanitarian of the Year Award from Food TV and Share our Strength in honor of his continued commitment to community engagement. Chef Cardoz also founded the Young Scientist Foundation (YSF) to enable high school and college students to work alongside accomplished researchers to develop new treatments for diseases.